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New advocacy group to fight for lowering drug prices

Amid growing outrage over soaring drug prices, David Mitchell has launched a new advocacy group called “Patients For Affordable Drugs” to lobby for new ways to drag down the high prices that patients are forced to pay for drugs.

Mitchell said he put $75,000 of his own savings into the initiative and received a grant of $500,000 from the Laura & John Arnold Foundation to establish a website and start lobbying for dragging down drug prices.

Speaking on the topic, Mitchell said, “It has become increasingly clear that patients are getting killed by high drug prices. They are losing their homes. They are spending their kids’ education money. They are depleting their 401ks.”

Hefty drug prices have become a major concern among patients as well as politicians. Recently, several members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter to Kaleo Pharmaceuticals CEO Spencer Williamson, expressing their concerns over the company’s decision of increasing the price for Evzio by a whopping 600 percent.

Turing Pharma is being criticized for increasing the price of anti-parasitic pills from $13.50 to a whopping $750 apiece, making it just impossible for many poor patients to afford it.

Taking an aim at pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and pharmacy benefit managers, Mitchell stressed that the new advocacy group will fight for policies that could lower the prices of life-saving drugs.